Thursday, August 23, 2012

GOI Blocks Twitter Accounts

NEW DELHI: The Union government has stepped up its efforts to stop what it perceives an online campaign of misinformation and rumour-mongering in the wake of Assam riots and has blocked several Twitter accounts, including two belonging to journalists, considered sympathetic to far Right in India.

…However, the blocking of Twitter account seems to be partial. The accounts have been blocked with the help of internet service providers (ISPs) and not Twitter.

Accessing the accounts from India shows web users a message, telling them that "This website/URL has been blocked until further notice either pursuant to Court orders or on the Directions issued by the Department of Telecommunications

Link

And THIS is a democracy?

Guess the Mamata Fever is spreading. Why do ISPs even entertain such ridiculous demands? Why can't the 'government' understand that idiotic actions such as banning / blocking only result in even more discontent and even more comments / posts / tweets of similar nature (this applies to 'governments' all over the world and not just India)? When will they learn?!

I am sure a better way exists to deal with the issue(s). Most definitely, this can't be the only solution. I would think of alternative solutions, but thankfully this isn't my problem. It is the government's job to think up and implement a sensible solution. I guess expecting ANY Indian government to come up with anything sensible is just expecting too much.

The government's view seems to be - 'This is a problem. Something MUST be done. This is SOMETHING, so let's do it'. I seriously doubt that anyone with a working brain would consider this as a sound approach in dealing with any situation.

BTW, the block works only if the accounts are accessed using HTTP and not HTTPS protocol. Just in case someone did want to access the 'blocked' content. Obviously there would another thousand or so workarounds.

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